Regulations Aren’t at Fault in Texas Blast, State Says

Texas officials, appearing at a
hearing on last month’s deadly blast at a fertilizer plant,
defended the state’s oversight and said regulations are adequate
to prevent future catastrophes.

None of the 16 state officials who testified at the state’s
first hearing on the fire and explosion at the Adair Grain Inc.
plant in West, Texas, that killed at least 14 people and injured
200 called for additional regulations involving hazardous
materials, insurance requirements or emergency responses.

“Even in the midst of great tragedy, the system worked,”
said Nim Kidd, chief of emergency management at the Texas
Department of Public Safety.

The explosion, which left a crater 93 feet by 10 feet and
registered 2.1 magnitude on earthquake monitors, has fueled a
national debate over the adequacy of chemical safety laws and
regulations. The plant hadn’t been inspected by federal
workplace regulators in more than 27 years.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Environment and
Public Works Committee, said yesterday the committee will
investigate the blast as she presses federal regulators on
chemical-safety laws.

The state fire marshal’s office expects to complete its
report on the April 17 disaster by May 10, assistant director
Kelly Kistner said. Eighty investigators remain at the 14.9-acre
site, with 27 state and federal agencies involved, he said.

OSHA Inspection

The plant’s most recent inspection by the U.S. Occupational
Safety and Health Administration was in 1985. The risk plan it
filed with regulators listed no flammable chemicals. And it was
cleared to hold many times the ammonium nitrate that was used in
the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

The U.S. has about 90 facilities -- including chemical
factories, refineries, water treatment plants or fertilizer
depots -- that in a worst-case scenario would pose risks to more
than a million people, according to a Congressional Research
Service report in November that analyzed reports submitted by
companies to the EPA.

Forty-one plants in Texas mix chemicals in a similar manner
as the Adair Grain plant according to industry classification
codes, Kathy Perkins, assistant director of the Texas Department
of State Health Services, said at today’s hearing in Austin.
Kidd said he could urge local fire chiefs in those communities
to examine those plants, which were not identified.

‘Taking Potshots’

The hearing was intended to clarify roles of various state
agencies in handling hazardous materials and emergency response,
rather than assign blame, said state Representative Joe Pickett,
a Democrat from El Paso who leads the Texas House Homeland
Security and Public Safety Committee.

“I feel confident that the agencies with oversight are
doing their jobs,” he told reporters after the hearing. “I
take offense at other states that are taking potshots at
Texas.”

It’s unclear if the West Volunteer Fire Department had
developed an emergency response plan with Adair Grain, Pickett
said. “Whether they had a plan or not, their plan of action was
incredible,” said state Representative Kyle Kacal, a Pearland
Republican who represents West.

Governor Perry

Texas Governor Rick Perry said in a April 22 interview with
Bloomberg News that there hadn’t been any violations at the West
plant since 2006 and that recent inspections hadn’t found any
“abnormalities that would cause concern.” Calls for change are
“premature” until investigations of the cause are complete, he
said.

Texas environmental groups, including Public Citizen Texas
and Texas Campaign for the Environment, said in an April 24
statement that state lawmakers should pass tougher regulation
and step up enforcement, including more inspections and
disclosure of toxic threats.

“They are trying to create an impression that no
regulation could have prevented this tragedy and that is
absurd,” said James Moore, director of Progress Texas, an
Austin-based political action committee that supports Democratic
candidates, said.

The Adair plant lacked adequate liability insurance for the
risks stemming from its hazardous materials, Insurance
Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman said. State officials have
estimated the explosion caused $100 million of property damage.

State leaders should require plants storing large amounts
of chemicals to operate further from residential areas, Ilan
Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity
Project, a nonprofit that favors tighter enforcement, said in an
interview. A public school and nursing home operated within two
blocks of the Adair plant.

“There are some pretty straightforward solutions that
would help ensure these kinds of tragedies don’t happen again,
such as a buffer zone between industry and neighborhoods,”
Levin said. “There is no requirement for appropriate buffers
between these dangerous materials and the neighborhoods.”